A New Focus?

I am trying to get my on-line jewelry store going and I think the fact that there is so much competition is going to hurt.

What I really love to do is create with sterling silver and beads of all kinds. What I also love are my cats, Bubba and Bunny.

So I got to thinking. I wonder if there would be any interest in sterling and bead pet collars. 

Look at this handsome guy, Bubba. I think he just might love a bling collar, maybe with a little bowtie? I would love some feedback on this idea if you have an opinion. Note: telling me I am a crazy cat lady is a waste of time cause I already know it.

My Workspace

Overview of Work Room 

 I am always curious about the spaces that beaders and silver workers use to create their
art.

My work space is my favorite room in the house, dedicated to designing and crafting and doubling as a spare bedroom for visitors. I haven't killed anyone yet with poisonous fumes because living in Florida I do all my soldering and polishing outside on the lanai.

The work bench is an old wood bedroom bureau with wide drawers filled with silversmithing tools and with my bench pin attached at one end conveniently close to my Flex Shaft drill.

Work Bench

On the wall between my bench and my bead storage is a gorgeous Guatemalan wall hanging that I brought back from a trip there and which I used to inspire my Guatemala cuff bracelet (available in my shop).

The wall also holds the two awards I received from the Fire Mountain Gems contest, one for my Butterfly Kaleidoscope Collar Necklace (sold) and one for my Melting Collar Necklace (available in my shop). I am very proud of these because both photos were used as back covers of beading magazines and one of them was used on the back of a Russan magazine.

Lastly, I am including two photos of some work in progress on my bench. The first is 5 pairs of Sterling Silver earrings awaiting polishing and ear wires and the second is my beading tray with a partially finished Sterling Pendant frame and some Malachite and Amethyst cabochons. I am waiting for some sterling bezels before soldering the gems to the sterling.

I hope you enjoyed this short peek into my work space and I would love to see your comments. Thanks for visiting today. Karen

www.tropicalkaren.com

The Making of a Video

May 22, 2016 Karen D'Andrea

They make it seem so easy in the movies. The plot unfurls, one scene seamlessly follows another until the conclusion wraps it all up. So how hard could it be, right?

Take two "older" women, add an IPhone 6 (one of us is still using a flip phone), and how hard can it be to take an 8 hour process and squeeze it into a minute or two?

Patting myself on the back with my great organizational skills, I divided the process into 5 sections: Intro and patterning; using the jeweler's saw; soldering; sanding and finishing; and showing the finished work. That's where the fun began....

Memorizing a script for a 60-something - not gonna happen. So write it down on a LARGE white board, OK done. Then, how do you read it while looking at the camera? My cross-eyed cat could do it (if he could read), but not I. So you end up looking like one of those 1950's black cat clocks, back and forth, back and forth.

Casting in the movies is done by having multiple actors try out for a particular part, the best one chosen for the role.

I cast myself in this video, having no choice really, and prayed that my New York accent wouldn't be too obvious. (One of my neighbors said she couldn't hear it, isn't she nice?).

So after two days of filming...film, repeat same section, film, repeat same section (you get the idea), we have 5 nice sections ready to splice together (for those of you who remember when film was really film and you had to put it in the splicer).

Only today, there's no film and "putting it together" goes over both our heads. Luckily, there's Google. Found a nice gentleman, Chris, in England who could do it inexpensively. After repeatedly instructing me how to send it to "the Cloud" (really?), it reached him.

His first response, "You filmed it vertically and need to do it again horizontally for a more professional appearance", resulted in two old women lying on the floor laughing hysterically (or as you younger folk say, lmao). That wasn't gonna happen.

The finished product looks great to me, vertical and all. It was a great experience, but I don't think I will be going there again real soon.

You can this this prize work at the bottom of my home page at www.tropicalkaren.com

Hand-crafted vs. Mass Produced

May 07, 2016 Karen D'Andrea

What makes a hand-crafted item different than a mass-

produced one?

 

The adjective "artisanal" is sometimes used in describing hand-processing in what is usually viewed as an industrial process.

 

Inexpensive jewelry, mass produced, usually in countries that pay very low wages, can pump out attractive jewelry but what are you really getting? Do you know for instance that the sterling silver piece you bought really is sterling, or is it some diluted metal that may have a little silver in it or will tarnish almost immediately?

 

Paying a little more for a hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind piece of work, that takes one person many hours of design and crafting results in you owning a piece of that person's heart, joy and skill.

You can see all my latest one-of-a-kind work at www.tropicalkaren.com.

Bubba the Problem Child Cat

We have a Siberian cat. The reason we have a Siberian cat is that my husband is allergic to cats and Siberians don't produce as much of the allergen in their saliva that other breeds do and so we are able to have him here without any allergy symptoms.

We have always had Burmese cats. When our daughter was little we would show our cats as a family hobby. So we know Burmese cats very well. Burmese cats, in my opinion, are the dogs of the cat world. They are friendly, calm and sociable. Our Burmese were very smart. One could open our bedroom door by jumping up on the door knob and turning it. The three Burmese were smart enough to unroll the toilet paper as an admonishment when we would leave them for a week's vacation. (We did have people come in to feed and play with them during that week).

Anyway, when our beloved 8 lb. Mickey died at age 18, I thought we couldn't get another cat because of my husband's allergy issues. Then I researched it and found the Siberian.

This is Bubba at 14 weeks, two weeks after we adopted him. This is still his favorite position. You can see that he has a "I am the boss of you" expression even at this young age.

My husband named him Bubba because we now live in the South (Florida) and because we knew that he would grow to between 16 and 20 pounds. And he is now 12 lbs at one year of age and still growing.

I have never really had a cat before, as I have previously explained. Whenever I read what cats are like I would proudly think, "not our cats".

Payback is a bitch as they say. Bubba is a CAT, all capital letters. I tried to clicker train him by giving him a treat if he came when I clicked. He saw the treat, turned up his nose, and ignored me.

Finicky eater- check. There really isn't anything other than tuna that he really likes and even that doesn't motivate his behavior.

He does greet visitors at the door and rubs against their legs, but only when he feels like it.

The worst problem we have is that he nips, both when he plays with us and also when he doesn't like what we are doing (like brushing him). He never breaks the skin when he nips but we really want to extinguish that behavior early on. I emailed the breeder in Georgia and asked what to do about the nipping. She said he would grow out of it and that we should tap him on the nose when he does it.
So I have been tapping him on the nose and saying "no biting" for months now and it hasn't made a bit of difference.

At my wits end, I emailed the breeder again about the nipping. No help there. I sure wish Bubba would finish training us soon.

Tom Brady the Kitten

If there is one thing I love as much as beading, it is cats. So when I found a stray lying outside a local Beef O'Brady's I went over to it. This small cat was relaxing on his side and allowed me to approach and pet him. Well, that is like waving a red flag to a bull and I had to prevent him from getting hit by a car in the adjoining parking lot.

Just then, a woman came over with a can of cat food and said she had been feeding him every day for three months. She loved him but couldn't take him home because she has a sick 10 year old cat.

My poor husband is severely allergic to cats although he loves them and has made the best of it for 20 years. Our current cat, Bubba, whom I have posted on before, is hypoallergenic, which is the only way we can have a cat.

So I brought this grey tabby home and put him on our lanai (a screened in porch for those of you not familiar with the term). I figured it would be easy to place him with one of the local pet shelters. WRONG! They were all full and having difficulty placing cats. In the meantime, I had him neutered, immunized, treated for fleas, tested for feline leukemia (negative) and heart worm (also negative).

The Vet tech named him: Since he was a male, she named him Tom and since he was found outside Beef O'Brady's, Tom Brady. I thought it was a stroke of genius.

Fortunately, one of the local rescues suddenly placed 7 cats in one week and took Tom and today I received the best news. He is in a loving home with an elderly gentleman who recently lost his cat and was wanting another. This gentle kitty now has a forever home and I am so happy.

Bubba the Kitten

This post has very little to do with making jewelry, but since he is my assistant beader, I thought I would introduce you to Bubba.

When our beloved Burmese cat Mickey died last year, I thought we wouldn't be able to get another cat. My husband's cat allergy had become progressively worse and I felt that it wasn't fair to him to continue this exposure.

On a whim, I googled "hypoallergenic cat" and was surprised to find a breed called the Siberian, who supposedly produced less of the allergenic protein in its saliva, and therefore did not aggrevate allergy symptoms.  Siberian cats come from Russia, where they were feral until the 1990's, when they began to be pets. They have only been in this country for a short time but are recognized as a purebred cat and are shown at cat shows.

I researched Siberian breeders and found quite a few in other states but didn't want to put a kitten through the stress of the cargo hold of an airplane. When I spoke with Lillian Narramore of Shadowlawn Siberian Cattery in Georgia, the problem was solved. Lillian is a flight attendant and was able to bring the kitten with her in the plane.

So that is how Bubba came to be a member of our family. This is him in his (still) favorite positions.

We got Bubba at 12 weeks of age, a sweet-natured little guy, very playful, and even better he has not caused any allergy symptoms in my husband. We didn't know what to name this little one, and people suggested giving him a Russian name, like Nikita. But you know. he just didn't seem to fit a Russian name, and knowing that he was going to be a big guy, (males reach 16 to 20 lbs.), and because we are now southerners, my husband suggested Bubba.

He quickly grew into his name and now, at 10 months of age, weighs 12 lbs. But he is still a kitten, racing around the house and catching the occasional bug that gets into our lanai. What makes him unique is the chirping sound he makes instead of "meow". It is funny to hear a tiny little trill coming from this big body.

 He follows me all around the house like a dog. He hides behind corners and from a sitting position, jumps up into the air, sometimes as high as 4 feet.

He allows us to brush him, which we do daily, and though he rarely sheds, his fur is fine like a rabbits and will mat. He allows me to brush his teeth daily, although he isn't crazy about it. At 10 months he is still as goofy and funny as he was when we got him.

And what has this to do with my beading? Bubba naps for hours every afternoon, taking a break from play so mommy can do her thing. What a good boy!